Will Thaksin be gone by Sunday?

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Thaksin's son 'violated disclosure laws'

The son of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra violated disclosure laws in the 73 billion baht sale of his and his family's stock of Shin Corporporation, the Securities and Exchange Commission ruled today.

Panthongtae Shinawatra faces a fine and possibly - but unlikely - a jail term. But the SEC ruling poses a further political threat to his father, whose opponents have claimed for the past six weeks the Shin Corp sale to Singapore's state-owned investment firm Temasek was fishy.

The SEC found Mr Panthongtae, 27, guilty of three counts of failing to disclose information to regulators about his share transactions between 2000 and 2002 prior to the Shin Corp sale. The maximum penalty is two years in jail and a fine of up to 500,000 baht. But SEC officials said the violations were not serious, and the body will set a fine within two weeks.

Following a decision by the Constitutional Court last week not to investigate financial wrongdoing allegations against the premier, focus shifted to Panthongtae and his sister Pinthongta, said to be the major holders of Shin Corp stock.

Both were cleared of insider trading charges tied to the Shin Corp deal, SEC officials also cleared Ms Pinthongta of any disclosure violations.

"The investigation concluded that Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his daughter Pinthongta are clear from all wrongdoing," said SEC secretary general Thirachai Phuvanatnaranubala.

Mr Thaksin is under pressure to quit over an array of complaints, including allegations of wrongdoing in the sale of his family's share of the Shin Corp empire.

A mass protest is scheduled for Sunday at Sanam Luang. Two previous rallies drew tens of thousands of Thaksin opponents to Bangkok.

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It's getting grimmer.

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Originally Posted by aging one

All the way back to 1989 buying mobile phones abroad for 200 dollars then bringing them in and selling them for 2500 dollars. Nice way to treat your fellow countrymen.

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I think its called business, Pops.

I will go out on a limb and risk being flamed to toast, by saying that when the history books are written they will say that overall Taksin has been of benefit to Thailand rather than otherwise.

But I too think the skids are under him.

I would say the same about maggie thatcher, dougal, but most ppl will disagree with me :(

I'm about 50 50 there. I did not like her personally but I acknowledge that she pushed through a number of necessary reforms.

Perhaps the comparison with Taksin is not inappropriate - they both seem to have an overweaning arrogance, which contributed to Maggie's demise and is likely to see off Mr T as well.

Resign? I should coco....

Also, with Mrs. T she did have rather a soft spot for large oil companies. *now who was it Dennise worked for again? Burma something or other*

Actually, we should now get to see if Thaksin is half the protective father he claims to be.

Another interesting angle on this is the Foreign Business Act. Clearly the transation is in breach of Section 36 (or is it 37, 38, cannot remember right off my head) regarding the use of Thai nominees. That section has criminal liabilities and it came as no surprise at all to see the powerful Sarsin sell his shares pretty damn fast once he realized this was an issue that was not going to go away too soon.

One of the other things that most interested me about this case is that the ultimate sanction for insider trading is a fine equal to the total amount of profit you made on the deal. In this case that would have been the difference between the price the share was bought at (bt. 1) and that it was later sold at (bt. 48 - I recall).

Roll on Sunday

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Originally Posted by Lily

I don't have any faith in electors; look at what the so called politically aware west have done recently. GWB and little Johnny Howard got in on landslides.

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So did Hitler, so they are in good company.....

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Originally Posted by Marmite the Dog

I think its called business, Pops.

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It is called monopoly, son.

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Originally Posted by Whiteshiva

It is called monopoly, son.

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The best business for a retailer, yes?

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Originally Posted by Dougal

I will go out on a limb and risk being flamed to toast, by saying that when the history books are written they will say that overall Taksin has been of benefit to Thailand rather than otherwise.

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Originally Posted by Dougal

I would say the same about maggie thatcher, dougal, but most ppl will disagree with me

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What did Maggie do for Thailand then????

Dang Marmers seems to be jumping on the Toxin bandwagon. Monopolies and overcharging are okay?

When is enough enough for Mr T?

Well, i'm knda poor right now so i'd overcharrge & monopolize to hell and back. But once I made my first billion think I'd taper off a tad. :)

hmm...

looking more likely by the minute.

William was right, William was right...hahahahaha :)

me too, i agreed with you anyway back on page 1.
:rock_dj:

Aren't we just brilliant CMn? :)

Yers sir, we bloody well are.

I'm no economist yet right now it is important for me to know how this will effect the rate of exchange.
Any ideas William??

^ I'm not sure if it will make any difference, but my colleague told me we moved out of Baht around 3 o'clock this afternoon.

But in all honesty, I'm no economist either :(

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Thaksin dissolves House for April election

Embattled Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra announced this evening that he has ordered a dissolution of the Lower House, paving the way for a new election in April.

His Majesty the King granted Mr Thaksin an audience this afternoon, after the premier apparently decided that a new election was the only way out of the current political tension.

Mr Thaksin was relaxed as he talked to reporters ahead of his formal, 8 p.m. TV announcement of his decision.

He ordered dissolution of the House after a busy Friday, during which political opponents vowed to camp out at Sanam Luang indefinitely following what they hoped would be a mass rally against Mr Thaksin.

Maj-Gen Chamlong Srimuang and supporters said earlier today they would go ahead with rally on Sunday even if Mr Thaksin dissolved the House. The aim, he said, was to force Mr Thaksin to resign.

But the counter-move by the premier seemed likely to take some of the wind out of the sails of anti-government protesters, buoyed by what may have seemed like one political victory after another, even including the humiliating dismissal of Mr Thaksin's sister from Sukhothai University for cheating, disclosed earlier on Friday.

For certain it removed the possibility of a debate at a joint session of Parliament, ironically offered earlier this week by Mr Thaksin as a way to get disagreements out in the open without resorting to public protests.

At a political meeting earlier Friday attended by thousands of Thaksin supporters, the premier said his family sold its stake in Shin Corp in order to avoid conflict-of-interest accusations.

"My good and genuine intentions were distorted to create a misunderstanding among the public against me and my family," he said.

At that meeting of agricultural cooperatives, Mr Thaksin gave a strong hint of what he intended, but could not say directly until after his audience with the king.

"If you are fed up with me let me know, if you want me to continue working for you, vote for me," he said.

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From Bangkok Post
http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_...s.php?id=81566

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but my colleague told me we move out of Baht around 3 o'clock this afternoon.

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That sounds a bit scary.
I lived through devaluation in Turkey and lost half of the meagre savings that i had.
have the chance to wait and see for a couple of weeks.

to be honest mate, I'm not sure I would read too much into it. Then again, when it comes to that sort of thing, I haven't a clue what the finance guys are talking about

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Originally Posted by Goddess of Whatever

At a political meeting earlier Friday attended by thousands of Thaksin supporters, the premier said his family sold its stake in Shin Corp in order to avoid conflict-of-interest accusations.

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What a lying kunt.

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Originally Posted by William

^ I'm not sure if it will make any difference, but my colleague told me we moved out of Baht around 3 o'clock this afternoon.

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sounds good to me.

I'd have thought the baht would've gone down yesterday. not a long really within it's normal pattern but today it's still pretty strong. Thik that's pretty wierd actually. Wonder what'll happen in the next few days.